Circuit Issues
by xXdreameaterXx
Summary: It was supposed to be an ordinary Wednesday afternoon for Clara Oswald: finishing classes, followed by a marvellous adventure with the Doctor. When instead, she ends up on a wild goose chase following a couple of circuit issues, Clara knows that when the Doctor is involved, things will never go as planned.


**Circuit Issues**

_It was supposed to be an ordinary Wednesday afternoon for Clara Oswald: finishing classes, followed by a marvellous adventure with the Doctor. When instead, she ends up on a wild goose chase following a couple of circuit issues, Clara knows that when the Doctor is involved, things will never go as planned._

—

The day couldn't have gone any better. In fact, Clara Oswald was surprised how well behaved her students had been today, including the usually pesky Courtney Woods, so when the bell rang, heralding the end of the school day, Clara finished her lesson with a smile and wished all of her students a wonderful afternoon, knowing that she herself would spend it chasing aliens on a foreign planet.

Because today was a Wednesday and to Clara, this day of the week was forever connected to adventures with her favourite alien.

The classroom emptied much quicker than Clara could gather her things and once she had stuffed them into her bag and headed out into the corridor, she noticed that most of the students had already rushed out of the exit, eager as always to go home. She also noticed something else - or rather, some_one_ else. The Doctor had positioned himself in the middle of the corridor, hands in his pockets, smiling broadly. Today, he was wearing his silly plaid trousers combined with a faded t-shirt under his red-lined coat and it made him look like an overgrown teenager who had been ordered by his mother to put on the good jacket. If it hadn't been for his age, and he still looked good for a 2000-year-old, he might have blended in perfectly at her school.

Clara put on an equally bright smile and quickly stepped closer, eager to leave her ordinary life behind for the rest of the day and start a brand new adventure somewhere in all of time and space. However, there was something about the look on the Doctor's face that made her wary as she came closer. He was often in a good mood, especially when he had just discovered something new and amazing, but today was different. Today, there was something almost mischievous about his face and as it began to make her suspicious, Clara came to a halt, frowning at the Time Lord.

"What's wrong?" she demanded to know, stopping just an arm's length away from him.

The Doctor scoffed softly. "Wrong? What makes you think something's wrong?"

Her eyes scanned him from head to toe, starting at his unruly, silver curls and ending at the pair of Doc Martens boots. So far, Clara couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary apart from the lack of something quite important.

"Where did you leave the TARDIS?" Clara asked him, the suspicion now audible in her voice. In her head, a couple of nightmare scenarios started to play and she was beginning to fear the worst. "Oh my God, you didn't park it in the assembly hall again, did you? My students aren't blind, you know, they do notice it when a police box just pops up out of nowhere."

At that, the Doctor's smile widened. "I did park the TARDIS in the school building," he admitted and somehow, he looked even proud of it.

Clara opened her mouth, ready to give him the same lecture she had already given him multiple times when the Doctor continued.

"I fixed it," he blurted out, his voice brimming over with excitement as he continued to beam at her.

Yet instead of smiling back, Clara merely frowned. She didn't understand. "Fixed what?"

"The chameleon circuit," the Doctor added excitedly. "I know, it's been broken and the TARDIS has been stuck in the shape of an old police box for almost 2000 years, but I got bored the other day and started tinkering with it and it worked! I fixed it!"

The chameleon circuit was one of the many contraptions the Time Lords had devised for their clever time machine, allowing it to blend in perfectly wherever and whenever it landed. In the 1960s, it became a police box, in ancient Greece it might have been a pillar, but no matter how cool it sounded, the first thing Clara felt was a twinge of grief.

The police box was the shape in which she had come to know and love the TARDIS and the sight of the specific shade of blue always filled her with joy and hope for the upcoming adventure. Right now, it felt almost like she had lost something that was very dear to her. But then again, it also opened up exciting, new prospects. Now, the Doctor would be able to land anywhere without attracting attention and the obvious question came to her mind.

"Well," she began, "what does it look like now?"

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders in response. "I don't know, I didn't really pay attention when I left the TARDIS. Shall we see if you can spot it?"

Finally, the smile was back on her face as she nodded in agreement. "Yes."

* * *

Up until this day, Clara had believed that she knew the Coal Hill School building inside out after having worked here for quite a few years, but she soon realised that that was anything but the case. As she walked through the corridors and empty classrooms, the Doctor always trailing a few steps behind her, she found herself questioning everything. Had that locker always been there? Was that the TARDIS or just a relatively new cupboard that she hadn't spotted before? Did that locked door lead to a broom closet or a space ship? Clara couldn't say and so, after half an hour, she gave up.

"Okay," Clara admitted eventually, "I don't know. Tell me where the TARDIS is. Is it that cupboard we passed ten minutes ago?"

Just like the Doctor hadn't paid attention to his space ship when he had exited it, Clara hadn't paid attention to the Time Lord as she had walked through her school, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but now, she stood in the assembly hall, looking straight at him, and the excited smile had faded from his lips. Instead, there was a different expression on his face, one that she liked a lot less.

"I, uh-"

Clara narrowed her eyes at him. "Doctor," she said in a warning tone, "where is the TARDIS?"

Folding her arms in front of her chest, she continued to glare at him, determined not to ask again before he told her the truth she was dreading to hear.

She got her answer when the Doctor lowered his gaze to the feet he was shuffling nervously around the floor. He was embarrassed - and he had every reason to be. "I don't know," he admitted.

Clara cleared her throat, but her eyes remained fixed on the Time Lord in front of her. "Let me get this straight," she began, saying it out loud once more so he would hopefully understand just what he had done, "you fixed a mechanism on your very complicated time machine that has been broken for centuries and then you parked said time machine somewhere in my school, didn't pay attention to what your time machine now looked like and then forgot where you parked it. Did I leave anything out?"

"No, that… that sounds like something I might accidentally do," the Doctor finally admitted.

"Uh-huh," Clara replied, nodding. "And how do you propose we find your TARDIS now?"

At last, the Doctor lifted his head once more and looked at her, the guilt written all over his face. He had lost his TARDIS a few times in his lifetime, but rarely because of his own stupidity. His opinionated time machine would probably let him know just what it thought about being misplaced like that.

"We could look for a while longer?" the Doctor suggested carefully.

Clara heard herself sigh. It definitely wasn't the adventure she had been hoping to have today, but before she took the Tube home, she decided to help the Doctor with the search in exchange for a lift. "Alright, let's get on with it."

* * *

"Nope," Clara announced as she slammed the toilet stall shut, "just an ordinary loo."

Next to her, the Doctor cursed under his breath, a rare occurrence and reserved only for the direst of situations. They had been searching the Coal Hill School building for five hours now, a lot longer than Clara had expected the search to last and with every passing minute, her hopes of finding the TARDIS were growing smaller and smaller. While they had looked for his misplaced time machine, the Doctor had told her about the variety of shapes he had seen other space ships take and after a while, Clara had realised that his TARDIS could be just about any object inside her school, beginning with a large cupboard and ending with a student's locker. They might search all night without finding it.

"Can't the sonic find it?" Clara wanted to know. "I'm sure it can detect the TARDIS no matter what shape it has taken."

"It can," the Doctor confirmed.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Sonic-search it!"

She watched as the Doctor's shoulders sank and he lowered his head once again. "I can't," he replied. "I left the sonic in the TARDIS."

As soon as his words had sunk in, Clara uttered a loud, long groan. "So, we're back to turning over every single pencil in this building?"

The Doctor responded with a slow, desperate nod.

* * *

The slurping sound as the straw failed to suck any more strawberry milk signalled Clara that the Doctor had finished his drink while her hot chocolate was still half full. They had taken a break in the empty cafeteria, sitting on the kiddie-sized chairs in silence as they both contemplated the hopelessness of their task. Hours had passed, they had searched every inch of the building and there had been not a single sign of the lost time machine. Clara was ready to call it a day and give up, but she knew that as long as they didn't find the TARDIS, the Doctor would be stuck here and probably demand to sleep on her sofa or else get up to even more mischief.

"I'm out of ideas," she admitted wearily. The Doctor knew his TARDIS a lot better than she did and he should have been able to find it. He couldn't expect her to be of much help anyway. "And I'm hungry. And tired."

The Doctor put the empty glass down and sighed. "Have we searched the upstairs toilets?"

"Twice," Clara confirmed. "It wasn't there."

He fell silent once again and went back to contemplating his situation. Clara had half a mind to just leave him there with his problem he had created himself, but she knew that it wasn't right. But what else could she do when they had tried everything already?

The door opened and when Clara lifted her head, she spotted Atif, the caretaker. At first, the old man seemed surprised to find her here, but he quickly put on a smile.

"Miss Oswald," he greeted her in a friendly manner, "I thought the teachers had all gone home hours ago."

Clara forced herself to return his friendly smile. "My friend has lost something and we've been looking for it," she told him truthfully. "Just taking a break."

Atif shrugged his strong shoulders. "What is it? Maybe I've seen it. I've just finished my rounds."

"Trust me, if you saw it, you'd know," the Doctor growled in response and Clara swiftly nudged him in the ribs as a reminder to be friendly to the staff.

"What are you still doing here? Did the students break everything again?" Clara asked him.

Atif chuckled. "Almost everything," he replied and held up a small light bulb. "One of the fridges went dark this morning. Last thing on the list and then I'll head home."

Clara nodded in his direction before Atif vanished into the back of the storage room to repair the fridge and then turned her attention back towards the Doctor, unsure of what their next step should be. They had combed every inch of the building without success and she was inclined to give up if it wasn't for the prospect of having a Time Lord guest and a student accidentally stumbling over the time machine tomorrow.

"We should split up," Clara suggested. "I'll take the upstairs and examine everything with a door and you can try this floor again. It just has to be somewhere."

"Yeah, but what makes you think the TARDIS took a shape with an obvious door?" the Doctor asked back.

In response, Clara narrowed her eyes at him. "How did your lot not constantly lose time machines?"

The Doctor shrugged, but Clara's attention was suddenly drawn to the other end of the room where Atif stumbled back into the cafeteria. There was something strange about the way he walked backwards, knocking over chairs and tables while his gaze was still fixed on something in the adjoining storage room. His mouth was agape and he kept on uttering the same inaudible words over and over again.

Quickly, Clara rose to her feet to come to his aid and see what was wrong with the caretaker, but he didn't even seem to notice as she placed her arms on his shoulders.

"Atif?" Clara asked carefully as she was beginning to really worry about the older man. At first, she thought that he was having a stroke until his words became a little clearer.

"Impossible," he uttered breathlessly. "Bigger… on the _inside_!"

From one second to the next, everything made sense and Clara felt a weight drop off her shoulder the same moment the Doctor appeared next to them.

"What is bigger on the inside?!" he demanded to know.

Slowly, Atif raised his hand and pointed towards the storage room, obviously still completely in shock over what he had witnessed. "Fridge. Bigger on the inside."

What finally woke the caretaker from his trance was the Doctor who, in a surprising gesture of happiness, lifted the man's hand and shook it fiercely. "Thank you!" the Doctor half-shouted at him in his relief. "Thank you so much!"

Atif tore his gaze away from the door and looked at the Doctor, his shock slowly giving way to confusion.

"Don't worry about it," Clara threw in along with a nervous laugh. "It's a prank. From the kids. We'll get rid of it immediately. Don't you worry, just go home, okay?"

The caretaker nodded carefully but then remembered that he was still holding the lightbulb. "But the-"

"We'll take care of it," the Doctor replied, snatching the spare part away from the caretaker. "Have a nice evening."

* * *

Both the Doctor and Clara uttered a deep and exhausted sigh as soon as they were back inside the TARDIS. Inside, nothing at all had changed even though, from the outside, it now looked like an ordinary fridge.

"To answer your earlier question," the Doctor said as he plopped down on the floor and crawled under the console unit to look at some of the cables, "we did lose quite a few of them on Gallifrey."

"And you didn't think that maybe the chameleon circuit was a flaw in the design instead of a practical feature?" Clara leaned against the console unit and chuckled. Right now, she only felt relieved that they had gotten the TARDIS back without causing a panic. Atif would probably question his sanity for a couple of days, but he was a caretaker at a London school. He had seen a lot of strange things and he would continue to see them for as long as there were children.

A few moments later, the Doctor's head popped up from underneath the console and he scrambled back to his feet, holding something in his hand that looked like a part of the TARDIS.

"What's that?" Clara wanted to know.

He shrugged in response. "Chameleon circuit. Who even needs those when your TARDIS looks like a police box," the Doctor said and tossed it over his shoulder.

It landed somewhere with a clang, but neither of them bothered to look for it because the Doctor was absolutely right. Clara didn't want the TARDIS to look like anything but a police box ever again.


End file.
